IMPORTANT

• Cycle 9 will last approximately 18 months, from December 1999 until June, 2001. Subsequent cycles will revert to 12 months. The purpose for extending Cycle 9 is to adjust the relative phasing of the CGRO and Astrophysics Data Analysis Programs.

• The total budget for Cycle 9 grants will be about $0.5M, which is about 60% of the Cycle 8 total. This is the last Cycle for which grant support will be offered through the CGRO Guest Investigator Program. The CGRO Guest Investigator Program is the only NASA funding source for CGRO research during the period covered by Cycle 9. Starting in Cycle 10, CGRO research may be funded under the Astrophysics Data Program.

• The use of EGRET in Cycle 9 will be very limited, restricted to exceptional targets of opportunity (ToOs). Approximately 6 weeks of EGRET ToO time will be awarded under this NRA. The exact amount of this awarded time that will ultimately be carried out will be dependent on performance monitoring of the instrument during Cycles 8 and 9.

• The proprietary period for all data obtained during Cycle 9 will be 3 months.

• Proposals for analysis of existing data, for new observations, for correlative research and for services to the CGRO community will be considered under this NRA (see Appendix C, sections II.C and III.B). Theoretical investigations will not be supported.

• Page limits and formatting restrictions will be more strictly enforced than in the past. Refer to the guidelines in (Appendix D, section II.B).

• This NRA covers the 18-month period of Cycle 9 only; projects requesting grant support or an observation plan extending for two or more cycles will not be considered.